Our students get up to a wide range of activities throughout their PhD with CDT WIRe, from public engagement experience at science festivals to scenario-based workshops. See some examples of these activities below. We are actively updating our website and hope to have more recent content here soon. Our students often present their research at international conferences - see their impact here.

Public Engagement Activities

CDT WIRe hosted a stand at New Scientist Live in 2024, having fun with all things water filtration!

The event saw thousands of members of the public visit the Excel Centre in London over the weekend of the 12-13 October, with a day dedicated to schools' visits on Monday 14 October. It was a great opportunity for our PhD students to communicate the brilliant work they are doing to a diverse audience, and highlight the importance of water research to the public. 

Activities included a water filtration demonstration, showing how some steps of the wastewater treatment process work.

Thank you to our PhD students for getting involved: Sreelakshmi Babu, Anna Christy, Raman Suri, Siqi Xu, Isabel Carneiro Cardoso da Silva, Mark Powders, Matthew Pitt, Harry Nicklin, and Rachael Giles. A big thank you also CDT WIRe staff members Jackie Whelan, Luca Alibardi, and Peter Jarvis for coordinating and attending the event.

A group of people stand in an exhibition space in a stand titled 'Water@Research'
A group of people stand in an exhibition space in a stand titled 'Water@Research'

Siqi Xu (Cohort III) participated in the Soapbox Science event held in June 2022 at the Milton Keynes shopping mall. At the event, she spoke to the public about her research on sewage sludge.


Holding a poop emoji in her hand she talked about pyrolysis, and why it is a beneficial treatment method for sewage sludge.

A woman stands wearing a white lab coat holding a poop emoji plushie

Harry Nicklin (Cohort II) participated in the FameLAB Science Communication competition, where researchers give a 3 minute talk on their research. Harry successfully made it to the Cambridge Regional final of the 2021 competition.

Videos

Blogs

A group of people stand smiling at the camera outside in the sun. some are holding rounders bats. one is holding a trophy and another is holding a box of chocolates

WIRe Summer Challenge 2025

Following the Annual WIRe CDT One-Day Conference, we went straight into the Summer Challenge with Cohorts IV, V and VI! This year’s Challenge theme was Water Reuse in the...

A large group of people wearing business attire stand in rows smiling at the camera. They are outside on grass, the weather is sunny with blue skies and behind them is a stately home. Members of the group include PhD students, academic staff and industry partners who are sponsoring students

The Annual WIRe CDT Conference 2025

  The Annual WIRe CDT One-Day Conference took place 30 June 2025, providing our PhD students with an opportunity to share their research both with each other and industry...

Challenge Week 2021

Challenge week took place this year from September 12th to 17th in Newcastle, alongside the STREAM IDC. It was hosted by Newcastle University. Cohorts I and II came together for the...